Zakharova called for a "turning of the page" in relations with Azerbaijan.
Moscow is working to implement all agreements reached with Azerbaijan following the crash of the AZAL plane, and also considers it necessary to release the Russians arrested in Baku, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on February 26, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reminded Moscow of the promises Vladimir Putin made at a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan in October 2025. "Our expectations are that the Russian side will take all necessary actions, provide a legal assessment of the incident, and pay compensation," he said.
On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed at the airport in the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 people. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport stated that the plane was damaged in Russian airspace as a result of an external impact. Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened since the plane crash. For more details, see the "Caucasian Knot" report "Baku-Grozny Plane Crash" and the article "Geopolitical Confrontation: What Led to the AZAL Plane Crash".
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented at a briefing on the statement by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who on February 26 reminded Russia of the promises made to the Azerbaijani side in connection with the AZAL plane crash.
According to Zakharova, following the meeting of the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents in Dushanbe in October, the Russian side has been "consistently working to implement all agreements reached" and has been keeping Baku informed of the progress. "We always do this with emphatic respect," she noted, adding that "high-level contacts" on this issue will continue in the near future. Zakharova did not provide any specific details on compensation payments, limiting herself to general statements. "We aim to fully resolve all remaining issues." There is such an expression as “to turn this tragic page” in relations between our countries,” the department’s press service quotes her as saying.
For her part, she reminded Baku that Moscow considers it necessary to “the speedy release and return home” of Russian citizens arrested in Azerbaijan in the summer of 2025. Zakharova did not report any progress in negotiations on this issue. “Of course, this would facilitate further productive dialogue,” she noted. It was previously stated that Russian diplomats “are working on the speedy release” of those arrested in Baku Russians.
Ethnic raids in Russia and retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan in the summer of 2025 became a twist in the crisis caused by the air crash over Aktau. Baku accused the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis and showed footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".
On July 1, a court in Baku arrested eight Russian citizens, detained on charges of drug trafficking and cybercrime. The eight arrested include 30-year-old developer Dmitry Bezugly from St. Petersburg and 26-year-old Ilya Bezugly from Kaliningrad (namesakes, not relatives), 41-year-old Anton Drachev, 23-year-old Sergei Sofronov, 40-year-old Igor Zabolotskikh, 22-year-old student from St. Petersburg Dmitry Fedorov, 25-year-old psychologist Alexei Vasilchenko, and 38-year-old developer Valery Dulov. Another Russian arrested in Azerbaijan, 35-year-old Alexander Vaysero from Yekaterinburg, was present along with those listed in a video released by Azerbaijani security forces after their arrest.